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Go to Church. You'll Live Longer.

At least that's what a new study has found, according to The New York Times.

Researchers used data
from a long-term study of 75,534 women that tracked their health and
lifestyle, including their attendance at religious services, over 16
years through 2012.

After controlling for
more than two dozen factors, they found that compared with those who
never went to church, going more than once a week was associated with a
33 percent lower risk for death from any cause, attending once a week
with a 26 percent lower risk, and going less than once a week a 13
percent lowered risk.

Risks for mortality from cardiovascular disease
and cancer followed a similar pattern.

The researchers
statistically eliminated the possibility of reverse causation — that is,
that healthy people go to church more than unhealthy ones. And they
found that some variables, such as social support and a tendency not to
smoke, contributed to the effect. But no matter how they analyzed the
data, the effect of church attendance alone seemed to have benefits.

“This suggests that
there is something powerful about the communal religious experience,”
The Times quotes senior author, Tyler J. VanderWeele, a professor of
epidemiology at Harvard. “These are systems of thought and practice
shaped over millennia, and they are powerful.”

I used to be a regular churchgoer but stopped earlier this year, finding other things to do with my time. But maybe I better go back.

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